The Importance of Family
by totescraycrayconconbonbon
Summary: Wrong Boy-Who-Lived Story! Harry is ignored by his family in favor of his twin, Evan- who everyone thinks is the BWL. Harry's only salvation are the Potter house elves that have raised him. Follows Harry through his life at Hogwarts: making friends, having fun, and getting into all sorts of mischief. Warnings: Genius!Harry. Sorry! This is my first story!


It was 8:05 pm on the night of October 31, 1981. A small family of four was sitting in the living room of their Summer home in Godric's Hollow. A pair of parents were sitting on the couch, smiling and laughing at their twin sons. The father was tall with messy black hair and twinkling hazel eyes. The mother was willowy with dark red hair falling to her shoulder blades and bright, emerald green eyes. The mother, Lily, was holding a camera while the father, James, was getting onto the floor to play with his sons.

The twins, who were having an argument in baby-babble, were almost complete opposites. One of them, Evan Charlus Potter, had his mother's dark red hair- in the form of his father's messy head- and his father's twinkling hazel eyes. He had a light dashing of freckles over his nose and a pale complexion. The other twin, Harry James Potter, he had his father's hair- jet black and terribly messy- and his mother's bright, emerald green eyes. His skin was very pale, but rather than a light sprinkling of freckles over his nose, he had two permanently rosy cheeks.

Not only were the twins very different in looks, but their personalities were also in stark contrast. Evan was loud, hyper, and outgoing. His sense of humor was exactly like his father's and he never stops giggling. You could always find him on his toy broomstick, zooming around with little caution. Harry was the quiet, introvert type of kid. He wasn't mischievous like his twin or outspoken like his mother and father. He spent most of his time playing with the Potter's kneazle, Crookshanks, or looking at books that his Uncle Remus bought him and his brother. He tolerated people- he really did. He didn't fuss or cry when someone wanted to hold him, like his brother did. He simply looked at them- almost curiously. The only person he really didn't like to be held by or be around at all was Peter Pettigrew.

Overall, they were both very happy children and they loved each other, but their personality differences kept them from any close twin relationship. Harry was painfully shy, while Evan would talk to anyone. In the future, their social situations are likely to be vastly differing.

Currently, however, they are arguing in baby-babble because Evan flew his toy broomstick into a horrible vase that their Aunt Petunia had sent the family for Christmas, causing it to almost smash into poor Crookshanks. Harry was furious that his brother had almost harmed his Crookshanks, Evan was uncaring, Lily was taking pictures from her seat on the couch, and James was chuckling at how adorably advanced his two boys were- Harry for his compassion and intelligence and Evan for his flying abilities and sense of mischief.

Suddenly, Evan grew tired of arguing with his brother and turned to his father.

"Da! Wan!" He screeched happily, clapping his hands excitedly.

"Wand, you say?" James asked in a goofy voice, a crooked smile etched onto his face.

"Wan! Wan! Wan!" Evan squealed back, his clapping hands turning into waving arms.

"Alright, then," James smiles as he reaches into his sleeve for his wand.

"What?! Lils, have you seen my wand anywhere?" James asks, trying to refrain from panicking.

"I don't know Jamie, where were you last?" she frowns, worry wrinkling her features.

"The kitchen," he says, hope filling his eyes as he heads there. "Found it!" he calls," It was in the hallway!"

With that, he comes bounding back into the living room, a relieved smile on his face. He starts towards Evan, to hand over the wand, presumably. He stopped halfway there, however, when a loud, high pitched alarm sounded, filling the house instantly, and causing the twins to whimper.

"The wards," Lily whispers, terrified, though no one hears her over the alarm.

James, coming to the same conclusion, races to the window, wand brandished. "Lily!" he yelled, "it's him! Grab the boys and run! I'll try to hold him off for as long as I can."

At Lily's slight hesitation, James yells "GO!"

She turns and runs, scooping the boys up and pressing them protectively to her bosom, not hearing James whisper " I love you guys".

James turned to the door, wand and head held high, and took a battle stance. As Voldemort blew the door in, James didn't even flinch.

As Voldemort looked around the room in his disdainful manner, James cast a quick shield charm on the stairs to provide a weak protection for his family and took down the alarm.

"Tom," James sneers in greeting, glaring daggers at Voldemort.

"Prongs" Voldemort smirked, dangling Peter's betrayal in his face in retaliation for calling him by his given name.

"Been talking to Peter, have you? I'll kill him myself after you're gone," James snarls before beginning the fight quickly but with weak spells.

"Expelliarmus! Stupefy! Reducto!" he fires off in quick succession before overturning the couch and diving behind it, dodging a crucio from Voldemort.

"Sectumsempra! Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort speaks calmly, dodging more curses from James.

.~*~.

A Lily runs, she hears the door combust and speeds herself up,desperately clutching at Evan and Harry, who were both startled and Evan sobbing.

As she sprints the corner, she skids, hardly holding on to the twins.

She skids to a stop in front of the bathroom and slams the door open. She rips the shower curtain open and places a cushioning charm on the bottom of the bathtub. She then places Harry and Evan in the empty tub, disillusioning and silencing them before casting a warming charm and turning the lights off. She goes into the hallway and locks the bathroom door and every other door she passes, hoping to keep Voldemort off of the twins' trail as long as possible, hoping to lead him to believe they weren't even in the house anymore.

She sprints as fast as she can toward the living room, seeing the shield at the foot of the stairs. She casts a very powerful blasting hex at it and it shatters, giving her entrance to the living room. As she enters, she sees that the shattering shield gained no attention from either dueler.

"REDUCTO!" Voldemort yelled, furious that James was still alive. The reducto hit the couch, flipping it over and giving Voldemort the momentary advantage he needed to kill James.

"Avada Kedavra!" He yells, aiming for James's head, giving him no time to react.

Lily, however, had plenty of time to react casting a silent charm, she made the lamp shoot in front of James, taking the curse for him.

"What?" Voldemort hissed, looking around the room until his eyes fell on Lily, who had run to James's side, kneeling to help him stand.

"Ahhh. The mudblood," he purred.

James, ignoring Voldemort for a brief moment, turned to Lily, "Lily! I thought you had left! Where are the boys? Did you leave them? WHY ARE YOU HERE?" He questioned, furious she came back without the boys, yet secretly thankful for her presence.

"I activated their portkeys. They are at Hogwarts with Albus, I'm sorry I didn't tell you I had them made, but a plan is only safe if you keep it to yourself, right?" She pleaded, carefully turning and giving him a look that screamed "GO ALONG WITH IT, YOU IDIOT!".

James, being the prankster he is, is a very good actor. He sighed in relief, not that you could've heard it over Voldemort's scream of rage. He shielded a smirk from Voldemort and sent a curse that was borderline dark.

Voldemort barely dodged it before sending curses at both Potters, who both dodged and retaliated.

The battle raged on and Lily summoned a huge Grandfather clock right behind Voldemort, forcing him to duck and cast a reducto to break the clock before it could reach him. It continued this way for a good twenty minutes, until James was hit with a stunner due to weary battling. Lily jumped in front of James, ready to protect him when she heard a piercing wail that she immediately recognized as Evan. She paled and faltered, knowing that he had broken through the silencing charm, making it ten times easier for Voldemort to find the twins. Her wand dropped slightly as she angled herself towards the stairs.

Taking advantage of her hesitation, Voldemort fired off a stunner, hitting Lily in the shoulder.

"Portkeyed away, hm?" he hissed out, half sneer half chuckle, "Very Slytherin Mudblood. You and your husband are devious and talented fighters. You will die tonight, but not before I kill your pathetic children. Perhaps I'll keep James- we could use good purebloods… it is a shame that you're a Mudblood, you could've joined as well, but I think your death will suffice."

James' and Lily's eyes took on horrified gleams as Voldemort glided up the steps with a creepy grace.

Once Voldemort was at the top of the stairs, he simply followed the sound of Evan's weeping and stopped in front of the bathroom door. He reached out and turned the handle only to discover that it was locked. Instead of casting the simple Alohomora, he blew the doors in, laughing as they crashed into the wall and out of the house, leaving a hole in the wall. He walked over to the shower and ripped the curtain down. Finding nothing, he reached down and felt around, feeling for the boys.

"Ahhh," he breathed when he felt wet cheeks. He raised his wand and whispered, "Finite Incantatem," and two boys appeared- one hysterically crying and the other trying to comfort his brother.

"As if two brats could ever lay a finger on me," he snarled.

Harry looked up from trying to comfort Evan as the shower curtain was ripped down and narrowed his eyes at the man who seemed to be upsetting his brother.

Voldemort saw the anger and accusation in Harry's eyes and laughed, pointing his wand straight at Harry's forehead, he sneered out, "Avada Kedavra".

A blinding light filled the room as the curse hit Harry's forehead and shot back at Voldemort, whose eyes widened in shock as his body disintegrated, leaving behind a soul of black to flee like a coward through the hallway window.

The light heated the shower rod and made it fall onto the boys, the end landing on Evan's cheek, searing a rough P into his flesh. This caused him to cry about two times louder.

Harry merely winced at the pain of his lightning curse scar and passed out, exhausted from his magic use and not wanting to withstand the pain any longer. His pulse slowed to an almost standstill as his body tried to make up for the magical exhaustion. His hair hung over his forehead, hiding the scar, and he unconsciously shrunk away from the burning hot shower rod, pushing Evan out from under it in the process.

The twins stayed like this for twenty minutes, with Evan eventually quieting down to soft weeping. At precisely 9:00 p.m., Albus Dumbledore fire-called, as he did every night at nine to check in. Upon peering around the ruined living room, he saw Lily and James motionless on the floor and quickly withdrew his head so he could floo the entire way through.

"James! Lily!" he cried, dropping to his knees as he reached them. He quickly reached out and felt for pulses, and having found both of their pulses, he muttered two speedy Rennervates to revive them.

Lily stirred awake and took in her surroundings, looking very confused. Suddenly remembering her boys, she turned and ran up the stairs, not bothering to speak to Dumbledore or look for James.

Dumbledore looked to James, took two seconds to wake him up fully before silently pointing to the stairs, indicating that he should follow Lily. As the reason why popped into James' head, he sprinted up the stairs and down the hallway until he had caught up to Lily a couple of feet from the bathroom. Dumbledore followed as quick as his age could allow, his wand held aloft for the chance of Voldemort being there to meet them.

He slowed to a stroll as he reached the bathroom door, seeing no evil man. He saw them rejoice Evan's survival, but grimaced when he saw them gaze into the bathtub and gasp.

Lily saw her first born's still body and gasped, reaching for him to check his pulse. She felt for it but felt nothing but warm skin. She let out a sob and buried her head in James' shoulder as he screamed out "NO! NO, HARRY, NO!" which eventually turned into broken sobbing as he held Evan and Lily close to his chest.

In all the commotion, Harry woke up, irritated, until he saw his family crying and yelling.

"Ma? Pa? Eva'?" He asked innocently, standing up in the process, grasping the edge of the bath tub. When they didn't look up from their sobbing, he reached out and touched his mother, punctuating it with a panicked "MA!"

Lily looked up this time, not daring to believe her ears or touch. As she saw Harry, she slapped James' arm and cried out in joy grabbing Harry and sobbing into his head of untidy hair. James merely laughed dazedly and pulled them both into a group hug with Evan, all relieved to be alive.

Albus sighed in relief as well and smiled at the happily recovering family, but frowned when he noticed that all had calmed down, with the exception of Evan. "James," he said, walking over to the family, "Why is Evan still crying so hard? Is he hurt, possibly?"

James looked down at Evan a frowned at his cheek. "Yes," he scowled, "his cheek is rather badly burned- did Voldemort actually hurt him? Where'd he go, anyway?"

Lily, upon hearing this, looked down at Harry, checking for any cuts or burns. Finding nothing visibly wrong, she turned to James and told him just that.

Dumbledore perked up at this and quickly turned to James, offering his arms to him.

"May I?" he asked, indicating Evan.

"Oh, yeah, sure Albus," James said, handing Evan to Dumbledore carefully.

Dumbledore studied the scar for about a half minute before he sighed heavily, turning to the Potters. "Evan's burn is a cursed scar, I'd wager. Because Harry doesn't have a scar, it is evident that Evan did the warding off here," he says quietly, sorrow and happiness battling to take full control.

"Warding off Voldemort, sir?" Lily asked, awed, looking at Evan for a moment before her face pinched up," Wait, warding? As in, he's still alive?" she asked, dreading the answer.

Dumbledore sighed and squinted his eyes in thought.

After a few seconds, he replied a distraught explanation, "Not physically. I do believe that he has made horcruxes, so his soul is still… in existence. He'll come back someday, which is why I believe I should train Evan, to prepare him for when Tom does come back- he'll be the only one able to kill Tom, now that the prophecy has begun to be filled."

"Evan's the Boy-Who-Lived? He'll need to fight?" Lily yelped, holding her arms out for Evan.

Dumbledore gave Evan to Lily and nodded in reply to her question.

"Just don't train Harry too- he seems to like reading and animals more than action, but Evan seems naturally inclined to action," James said, looking to Dumbledore, as if daring him to say otherwise.

"If that's what you want. Don't let Harry feel neglected, though. Make sure he knows his stuff, maybe letting him read what Evan is learning?" Dumbledore needled, not wanting Harry to grow up feeling different from his twin.

"We'll let him read whatever he likes. We will not force anything on him, however. Evan has to , to survive, but Harry doesn't have to be a part of that whirlwind. Also, don't start training Evan until he's around seven- he can't be too far ahead of his classmates when he gets to Hogwarts!" Lily said, looking to James for agreement. Upon receiving it, she looked to Dumbledore, looking for his opinion.

"That all sounds fine. Don't worry about Harry too much- or Evan as a matter of fact. Both are fine boys, and they'll live to tell their tales." Dumbledore assured Lily and James, watching the concern leak out of their eyes.

"So, what now?" James asked, looking to Dumbledore for the answer.

"I"ll alert the papers to Voldemort's demise and let them know that Evan is the Boy-Who-Lived," Dumbledore shrugged.

Not even twenty four hours later, an emergency issue was released, alerting the wizarding world to Voldemort's defeat and Evan Potter's victory.

At that moment, most who knew the Potter family, erased poor little Harry from their memories.


End file.
